Bloodstar
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the graphic novelGraphic novelA graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
; see sea starSea starStarfish or sea stars are echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. The names "starfish" and "sea star" essentially refer to members of the class Asteroidea...
for the species of sea star.
Bloodstar is possibly the first graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
to call itself a “graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
” in print (in its introduction and dust jacket). Based on a short story by Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
, the creator of Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...
, and illustrated by fantasy art
Fantasy art
Fantasy art is a genre of art that depicts magical or other supernatural themes, ideas, creatures or settings. While there is some overlap with science fiction, horror and other speculative fiction art, there are unique elements not generally found in other forms of speculative fiction art...
master Richard Corben
Richard Corben
Richard Corben is an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine...
the book was published by The Morning Star Press in a limited signed and numbered edition.
Status as first self-described graphic novel
The front flap of its dust jacket reads: "BLOODSTAR is a new, revolutionary concept — a graphic novelGraphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
, which combines all the imagination and visual power of comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
art with the richness of the traditional novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
."
Two other books published the same year (1976
1976 in comics
This is a list of comics-related events in 1976.- Year overall :* American Splendor, Harvey Pekar's long-running autobiographical comic book title, publishes its debut issue.* Fantagraphics Books, Inc. founded by Gary Groth and Michael Catron....
) also called themselves graphic novels, but one is a reprint collection of a serialized underground comic (George Metzger's "Beyond Time and Again") and the other is really an illustrated novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
(Jim Steranko
Jim Steranko
James F. Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer-artist-historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator....
’s Chandler: Red Tide)
Unlike "Beyond Time and Again", Bloodstar is a long story that had not been previously published episodically. It was first printed as a luxury hardcover edition and subsequently reprinted in several trade paperback editions.
Background and creation
The story is an adaptation of Robert E. HowardRobert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
’s original short story "The Valley of the Worm", which appeared for the first time in Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
(Feb. 1934 issue). This story had been previously adapted to comics in a version written by Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
and Gerry Conway
Gerry Conway
Gerard F. "Gerry" Conway is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics vigilante The Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man...
, pencilled by Gil Kane
Gil Kane
Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...
and inked by Ernie Chan
Ernie Chan
Ernesto "Ernie" Chan is a Filipino-born American comic book artist.-Biography:Chan migrated to the United States in 1970, and became a citizen in 1976. For a number of years, he was obliged to work under the name "Ernie Chua" as that name had been wrongfully entered on his U.S...
for Supernatural Thrillers
Supernatural Thrillers
Supernatural Thrillers was a horror fiction comic book published by Marvel Comics in the 1970s that adapted classic stories of that genre, including works by Robert Louis Stevenson and H.G. Wells, before becoming a vehicle for a supernatural action series starring an original character, The Living...
#3 (1973). This version gave the name "Helga" to the unanmed character of a "naked tousle-headed girl" described by Howard. In Bloodstar she became "Helva" and is the romantic interest of the protagonist. Since he pencilled this first comics version, it may have been Gil Kane
Gil Kane
Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...
's idea to turn "The Valley of the Worm" into a longer format sequential adaptation. Originally Bloodstar was going to be titled "King of the Northern Abyss". The first chapter of Bloodstar appears to be inspired by H.G. Wells' short story, The Star
The Star (Wells short story)
"The Star" is an 1897 apocalyptic short story by H.G. Wells.-Plot summary:In January , the people of Earth awaken to the notion that a strange luminous object has irrupted, into the Solar System, after much disturbing the normal orbit of the planet Neptune...
. According to an interview with Corben in Heavy Metal magazine, Armand Eisen and Gil Kane
Gil Kane
Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...
contacted Corben and asked him if he wanted to work on the book. Gil Kane
Gil Kane
Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...
changed the hero's name from "Niord" to "Bloodstar" and the created design for a star mark on his forehead. Kane edited the book with Armand Eisen. Originally The Morning Star Press was going to publish adaptations of two other Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
stories: Skull-Face and Swords of the Red Brotherhood. John Jakes
John Jakes
John William Jakes is an American writer, best known for American historical fiction.-Early life and education:...
expanded the story adding much material to it and then Richard Corben
Richard Corben
Richard Corben is an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine...
revised, rewrote it and added further content. A latter edition (1979) was rewritten by John Pocsik.
Although Corben stated in 1981 that Bloodstar was his favorite story up to that point, he initially hesitated to take the assignment, finding the characters in "The Valley of the Worm" lacking in depth. Corben’s adaptation of the story adds humanity and romance to Howard’s brutal fights and action sequences.
Bloodstar is a post-apocalyptic sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery is a sub-genre of fantasy and historical fantasy, generally characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural...
tale of the life of a mythical hero and his heritage. It is illustrated in black and white in mixed media in startlingly three-dimensional looking images rendered in airbrush, markers and colored pencils and features some ground breaking narrative sequences. The artwork took about nine months to complete, and according to Berni Wrightson, Corben painted the cover in less than 24 hours, while Wrightson and Bruce Jones
Bruce Jones (comics)
Bruce Jones, whose pen names include Philip Roland and Bruce Elliot, is an American comic book writer, novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter whose work included writing Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk from 2001-2005.-Early career:...
were visiting him in Kansas City. Corben was later commissioned to color the story, but had assistants do it following his method, provably Herb and Diana Arnold. This color version appeared serialized in Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal (magazine)
Heavy Metal is an American science fiction and fantasy comics magazine, known primarily for its blend of dark fantasy/science fiction and erotica. In the mid-1970s, while publisher Leonard Mogel was in Paris to jump-start the French edition of National Lampoon, he discovered the French...
45-52, but was never collected in English.
Critical reception
Some writers have commented that Bloodstar is the most successful adaptation of a Robert E. HowardRobert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
story. James Van Hise wrote : ""...I believe that it is the only time someone has rewritten Howard and retained the atmosphere and the subtext while also transforming it in to something as good as the original, however different it is in substantial ways." D. Aviva Rothschild agrees, calling Bloodstar "pulp adventure fiction brought to life by a master illustrator... much more interesting, both textually and artistically, than the insipid Conan
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...
adaptations by Marvel
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
." Comics historian Maurice Horn believes that Bloodstar is "A bizarre commingling of Greek and Norse mythologies, with a light admixture of science fiction, it embodies the sum of Corben's fantasies and nightmares in its fantastic array of repulsive-looking monsters, incredibly muscled heroes and impossibly big-busted maidens. Bloodstar also embodies Corben's peculiar vision of heroic sex and heroic death as the twin saviors of mankind." In contrast, critic Agustín Oliver comments regarding Bloodstar that “… sexual activity is infrequent in Corben’s work; when it appears it is usually depicted as delicate and tender.” Alberto García Marcos, who wrote a long analysis of Corben's career, considers Bloodstar his masterpiece.
Editions in English
- First edition: 1976. The Morning Star Press, Leawood, Kansas. HardcoverHardcoverA hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
. Story by Robert E. HowardRobert E. HowardRobert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
. Adaptation by Richard CorbenRichard CorbenRichard Corben is an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine...
and John JakesJohn JakesJohn William Jakes is an American writer, best known for American historical fiction.-Early life and education:...
. Art by Richard CorbenRichard CorbenRichard Corben is an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine...
. Edited by Armand Eisen and Gil KaneGil KaneEli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...
. Design by Richard CorbenRichard CorbenRichard Corben is an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in Heavy Metal magazine...
. The Morning Star Press Ltd. broke up shortly after this edition was published.
- Second edition: ISBN 0-671-25209-7 Sept. 1979. Ariel Books, New York. PaperbackPaperbackPaperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
. Same credits as the first edition, except new lettering: James WarholaJames WarholaJames Warhola is an American artist who has illustrated more than two dozen children's books since 1987.A native of Smock, a coal-mining region in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, and of Rusyn origin, he is the son of Paul Warhola, Andy Warhol's oldest brother. James received a BFA...
, associate editor:Joe KellyJoe Kelly (comics)Joseph "Joe" Kelly is an American comic book writer, penciler and editor who has written such titles as Deadpool, Uncanny X-Men, Action Comics, and JLA...
and design: Bruce JonesBruce Jones (comics)Bruce Jones, whose pen names include Philip Roland and Bruce Elliot, is an American comic book writer, novelist, illustrator, and screenwriter whose work included writing Marvel Comics' The Incredible Hulk from 2001-2005.-Early career:...
. This edition is rewritten by John Pocsik. This second edition features a more contrasted reproduction inferior to the first one, but it contains a new double page spread in the title page featuring the main characters that was not present in the first edition.